Protect Your Email and Other Online Accounts from Hackers

In this post, I will teach you how to protect your email account from getting hacked in a very simple and easy to understand manner. The tips provided in this post not only applies to your email account, but can also be used to protect any other online account such as your bank logins, Paypal or your social networking account. Nowadays, I get a lot of emails from people where most of them ask me for help on getting back their email accounts. This is because, they have simply fallen victims and have got their email accounts hacked!

Today, it is a common problem for many Internet users to have their email accounts compromised by hackers. But this arises one BIG question in my mind!

“Is it so easy to hack an email account? OR Is it so difficult for people to protect their email account from getting hacked?”.

The single answer to these two questions is “Absolutely NOT!“. It is neither easy to hack an email nor difficult to protect an email account from being hacked.

If this is the case, then what is the reason for many people to lose their accounts?

The answer is very simple. They do not know how to protect themselves from getting hacked! In fact, most of the people who lose their online accounts to hackers are not the victims of hacking but the victims of trapping. They get hacked not because they are hacked by some expert hackers, but because they are fooled to such an extent that they themselves give away their password.

Are you confused? If so continue reading and you’ll come to know…

Now I will mention some of the most common pitfalls by which people often fall victims and get their accounts compromised. In addition to this, I will also give information on how to avoid these pitfalls and stay protected.

1. Website Spoofing (Phishing Scam)

Website spoofing, also known as phishing is the act of creating a fake website with the intention of misleading the visitors. The website will be created by a different person or organization (other than the original) especially for the purpose of cheating. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.

For example a spoofed website of Yahoo.com appears exactly same as Yahoo Website. So, most people would believe this as the original site and lose their passwords. The main intention of spoofed websites is to fool users and take away their login details. For this, the spoofed sites offer fake login pages. These fake login pages resemble the original login pages of sites like Yahoo, Gmail or Facebook. Since they resemble the original login page, people believe that it is true and give away their login details to the hackers by trying to login to their accounts.

Solution:

Never try to login/access your online account from the sites other than the original site.

Always type the URL of the site in the address bar to get into the site. Do not click on a hyperlink to enter the site.

2. By using Keylogger (Spyware)

The other commonly used method to steal password is by using a Keylogger. A Keylogger is nothing but a spyware. The detailed description of keylogger and its usage is discussed in the post How to Use Keyloggers. If you read this post you’ll come to know that it is too easy to steal the password using a keylogger program. If you just access your account from a computer installed with keylogger, you definitely lose your password. This is because the keylogger records each and every keystroke that you type on the computer’s keyboard.

Solution:

Protecting yourselves from a keylogger scam is very easy. Just install a good anti-spyware program and update it regularly. This keeps your PC secure from a keylogger. For more information, you may read my other post on How to Protect your Computer from keyloggers?

3. Accessing your Email from a Public Place

Do you access your email from public places like cyber cafes? If so, you are definitely under the risk of losing your password. In fact, many people lose their email account in cyber cafes. For the owner of the cyber cafe, it is just a cakewalk to steal your password. For this, all he need to do is install a keylogger program on his computers. So, when you login to your email account from this PC, you give away your password to the cafe owner. Also, there are many Remote Administration Tools (RATs) which can be used to monitor your browsing activities in real time.

This doesn’t mean that you should never use cyber cafes for surfing the Internet. I know, not all the cyber cafe owners will be so wicked. However, it is recommended not to use public places for accessing confidential information. If it comes to the matter of security never trust anyone, not even your friend. I always use my own computer to login to my accounts so as to ensure the safety.

So with this I conclude my post and assume that I have helped my readers to protect their online accounts from being hacked. Please pass your comments. 🙂

hi i have been trying to hack email from my office but servers are not allowing me to hav any keylogger, or any other that can be used. So i hv tried some methods that i were read in Ankit Fadias… i. e. by making face id on any email provider and sending mails to victims ids…..

Dear Srikanth ! Thanks for writing post on how to protect email from being hacked.I have an email wich i do not use for i recieve about 10 emails from different id’s that you have won american ,british lottery etc.I want to know to stop these mails.For when i use mobile phone to see mail inbox i have to pay extra amount to read these mails.

I wish that i found one can help me to bring me my hacked e-mail..please it is to important and many information in side because i use it for many years..i will appreciate any help my e-mail what hacked is [email protected] … thanks a lot

Please! Someone is blackmailing me and he is keeping my naked pics. He said he can see who are in my messenger list and my emails. Please help me!!! i am really desperate with this. I will loose my job and friends and future husband if this dont stop. I dont have any money to pay for help too. Please please!!!!!

nice one….and i wish to clear a doubt …if i have the email address…how can i find their location…easy? …please reply fast …email me if u can please…i may not be able to remember where i commented to retrieve its replies,…

I have a ‘Google’ and ‘Orkut’ account and my Login id was “[email protected]” . My name is Gagan Aggrwal. Yesterday my Orkut profile has been hacked along with my two email ids which were associated with Orkut. The hacker is still using my Orkut profile and changed the password of my email ids as well as Hacker is using my email Id for “Pornographic Promotion’s “.whom so I feel that the person can use my personal data for promoting the pornographic items even I have also saved my some personal photograph over that email Id . As I have lots of Private and some Personal data over that “Email Id” , I thing that the person missus my Data .

@ Srikanth! I see you’re helping out people with lots of useful info. *What about BigBrother? Can we protect ourselves from being tracked? *What about legalty? Can they use tracked info to abuse us? *I also would appreciate if you could tell about how to shut all unused gates and protocols, for ex. to configure a pc for sending/receiving e-mails ONLY the best protected way. There is also a part of that if we use encryption, that data would be suspected for sure, and as tracked down, they would be decrypted. so I think that is not the best idea to use cryptography or any such ways which would attract any attention.

thanks and regards, xid. p.s. if possible please send the copy of the answer on my e-mail.

Srikanth……….my gf’s ex (let’s call him S) has hacked my e mail acct, msn and facebook a long time ago, so i changed my password, i don’t know S is cheating or what, he said he can hack any acct even I change my password?? Is that true? I know S know about computers, now i want to hack his yahoo email, I saw your post but I am still confusing about something : we are enemies, so how can I send him a mail and he will open it?? if he is not going to open it, how can I place the spyware into his PC? and if he knows computer well, can he trace the spyware??? any good suggestion to hack his account, thanks so much